Method and apparatus for scoring and fan-folding strip material



Oct. 22, 1968 3,406,959

R. W. ROSS METHCD AND APPARATUS FOR SCORING AND FAN-FOLDING STRIP MATERIAL Filed Sept. 21, 1965 2 Sheets-Sheet 1 l8 9 m L x F Ig.

I NIT I UNP'rs Oct. 22, 1968 3,406,959

R. W. ROSS METHOD AND APPARATUS FOR SCORING AND FAN-FOLDING STRIP MATERIAL Filed Sept. 21, 1965 2 Sheets-Sheet 2 K 2 L A 4 B M a N c a '1 B I0 I A 4 1. K B L 4 C e a N' I A D l B K, a P c l Ll PM I N A B D C D L M A a N C P D K L A M c B N K A L M C B P M A I I I I l I I I I I I I I I D I I I l I I I I l I I I I I l l I 1 I U N \T LENGTH United States Patent Otfice 3,406,959 METHOD AND APPARATUS FOR S'CORHNG AND FAN-FOLDTNG STRIP MATERIAL Raymond W. Ross, Cheltenham, Pa., assignor to Leeds & Northrup Company, a corporation of Pennsylvania Filed Sept. 21, 1965, Ser. No. 488,874 9 Claims. (Cl. 270-73) ABSTRACT OF THE DISCLOSURE Method and apparatus for producing a substantially straight stack of fan folded strip material. In the prior art, stacks tend to be skewed because of an accumulated error due to unequal spacing of the scoring elements. The invention involves the fan folding along its score lines of a transversely scored strip of material characterized by successive sets of an odd number of score line produced by scoring means including an odd number of scoring elements whereby error in the distance between score lines due to unequal spacing of the scoring elements will be distributed from side to side and will not accumulate.

This invention relates to the scoring of strip material, and has for an object the provision of a method and apparatus for scoring a strip of material which, when fan folded along its scores, produces a straight stack of folded panels.

In recorders of the type used to record magnitudes of conditions on a chart, the chart is generally supplied to the record marker or capillary pen from a roll, and is generally wound up into another roll after having the magnitude of the condition recorded thereon. It has been found, however, that several advantages may be gained by supplying the chart paper to the recorder from a stack of fan folded panels, rather than from a roll. For example, where a fan folded chart is employed, there is always ready access to the past record, since the stack may be partially unfolded to reveal the record at any point along the height of the fan folded stack. Of course, when the chart paper is supplied to the recorder from a roll, and subsequently is wound up into another roll after having the record placed thereon, ready access of any one portion of the chart is impossible, and it is necessary to unwind and view the roll, even though access to only some mid-portion of the chart in the roll is desired. Moreover, fan folded charts have been found to be easier and more convenient to store, both before and after their use in the recorder.

The production of fan folded strip material, such as fan folded chart paper, is known, as illustrated, for instance, in US. Patents 946,393-Nichols; 1,015,580-Nichols; and 1,823,475Scudds. Generally speaking, the prior art methods for producing fan folded material, of which the foregoing patents are exemplary, involve somehow scoring the strip of material which is to be fan folded, as for example by perforating the material, to provide fold lines or creases along which the strip may be fan folded by some appropriate apparatus into an accordion or fan folded stack.

The scoring or creasing of strip material preparatory to its being folded into an accordion or fan folded stack has previously been accomplished with either one of two types of creasing mechanisms. The first involves the use of a socalled rotary scoring mechanism including two rolls disposed substantially parallel one to the other and between which the web or strip of material to be scored is passed. One, or both, of the rolls employed in such an operation includes perforating elements or blades attached longitudinally on the roll and in a manner such that they provide a score or crease in the web of material as it passes between the rolls, in a direction at right angles to that of 3,405,959 Patented Oct. 22, 1968 the length of the strip of material, i.e. at right angles to the path of the material traveling between the two rolls.

The second type of creasing or scoring apparatus used in connection with the provision of fan folded strip material is of the so-called fiat bed type, and includes a pair of flat parallel members arranged one on each side of the path of the material which is to be scored. In this case also, one or both of the flat members includes perforating elements or blades which effect a creasing of the strip material as it passes between the two flat members. For a better appreciation and understanding of the types of rotary and flatbed apparatus used in creasing strip material preparatory to its being fan folded, reference is made to the foregoing Nichols and Scudds patents which illustrate the type of apparatus referred to. Significantly, such creasing or scoring apparatus of the prior art always contained an even total number of scoring elements or blades, as indeed evidenced by the express teachings of the aforesaid Nichols patents.

While fan folded strip material, such as fan folded paper, has been produced in the past, there has always existed the problem of providing a relatively straight or upright stack of fan folded material, i.e., a stack in which the sides formed by the fold lines are substantially normal to the planes of the panels or folds in the stack. Generally speaking, prior art methods and apparatus have consistently produced fan folded stacks characterized by a definite skew or slope. This problem has been especially acute where the stack of fan folded material is relatively tall, and is composed of panels having a rectangular rather than a square configuration, and in which the edges, including the fold lines of the panels, are of substantially greater length than the width of the panels. Stated otherwise, where the length of the fold lines is substantially greater than the distance between them, and the stack of panels is relatively high, it has been found that the provision of a straight, upright stack was virtually impossible to produce.

In accordance with one embodiment of the present in vention, there is provided means for producing a substantially straight stack of fan folded strip material, such as, for example, fan folded chart paper for use in combination with recorder-s of the type mentioned above.

In accordance with one form of the invention, there is provided a method for scoring a strip of material so that it may be fan folded along its score lines to form a substantially straight stack of folded panels, which comprises repeatedly applying to said strip in a transverse direction a set of an odd number of scores of substantially equal spacing one from the other, to provide a scored strip of material characterized by successive sets of an odd number of score lines, the spacing from score line to score line in the first set being followed by identical spacing in the next set, and so on throughout the length of said strip, whereby the scored strip of material may be fan folded along its score lines to produce a straight stack of folded panels having sides including said score lines disposed substantially in planes normal to the planes of the panels.

'In accordance with another form of the invention, there is provided an apparatus for scoring a strip of material which, when fan folded along its score lines, produces a straight stack, comprising scoring means including an odd number of scoring elements substantially equidistant one from the other, means for supplying a strip of material to said scoring vmeans to provide scores defining the widths of the panels of the strip when fan folded into a stack, said odd number of scoring elements producing a scored strip of material characterized by successive sets of an odd number of score lines, the spacing from line to line in the first set being followed by identical spacing from line to line in the next set, and

so on throughout the length of said strip material, whereby the scored strip of material, when fan folded, produces a straight stack of folded panels having sides including said score lines disposed substantially in planes normal to the planes of the panels.

As used herein, the term scoring includes the step of providing a score or mark on the strip material, as for example, by perforating a strip with any suitable perforating element or blade, or by creasing the strip with an edge to provide a score line along which the strip may be folded to form a series of fan folded panels.

For further objects and advantages of the invention, and for a detailed description of other features, reference is to be had to the following description in conjunction with the accompanying drawings, in which:

FIG. 1 is a side view of one form of a scoring apparatus embodying the present invention;

FIG. 1-A is a side view of a modification of the scoring member shown in FIG. 1;

FIG. 2 is a diagrammatical illustration useful in understanding the embodiment of the invention illustrated in FIG. 1;

FIG. 3 is an isometric view of a straight stack of fan folded strip material of the invention;

FIG. 4 is a side view of another type of scoring apparatus embodying the present invention;

FIG. 5 is a diagrammatical illustration useful in explaining the embodiment of the invention illustrated in FIG. 4; and

FIG. 6 is a diagrammatical illustration useful in understanding the invention.

Referring now to FIG. 1, an apparatus 10 for scoring a strip of material is shown including a cylindrical perforating roll 11 and a cylindrical back up roll 12, positioned substantially parallel one to the other. A strip or web of material 13 is 'fed between the rollers in the direction of the :arrow 14. Perforating roll 11 is provided with three knives or blades, 1, 2, 3 positioned longitudinally on the roll and spaced substantially equidistant one from the other and in a manner such as to permit their contacting the backing roll 12 at the point where the strip of material passes between the rolls. The scoring member 11 is driven by a belt or coupling means 15 by motor 16 driving the gear 17 through drive shaft 18 and speed converter 19. The strip of paper 13 is driven between the perforating member 11 and back up roll 12 by means of sprockets (not shown) which may be included in the periphery of either the perforating member 11 or back up roll 12, which sprockets engage the slots or holes 61 provided along the edges of the strip of paper, as best shown in 'FIG. 3. The surface of the back up roll 12 comprises a layer of resilient material such as rubber, into which the respective knives or perforating blades 1, 2, 3 of the perforating member 11 will slightly penetrate during rotation of the two rotary members 11 and 12, causing the strip of material to be scored in a transverse direction at the point where the knives or blades contact the resilient portion of the back up member. During operation of the scoring apparatus, the strip of paper 13 is fed between the two rolls 11 and 12 which are rotating respectively in the direction of the arrows 20, 21. As the strip of paper passes between the two rolls, it is scored transversely in a repeated fashion at distances along its length equal to the distances between the knives or blades 1, 2, and 3 included on the surface of the roll 11. The scored strip material is then fed into any suitable fan folding means 24 which serves to fan fold the scored strip material along its score lines and into a fan folded stack 22 which is directed into the storage bin 23. The fan folding means 24 may be of a type well known to those skilled in the art, such as for example, that illustrated in Nichols Patent 946,393. Of course, it will be appreciated that the fan folding the scored strip material may be accomplished manually, though certainly the use of automatic folding means is preferred.

The strip of material creased by the method and apparatus illustrated by FIG. 1 is characterized by successive sets of an odd number of score lines, the spacing from line to line in the first set being followed by identical spacing from line to line on the next set, and so on throughout the length of the strip. When fan folded, such a strip produces a straight stack of fan folded panels, as illustrated in FIG. 3, which shows an isometric view of a stack 60 of fan folded chart paper having sides including the score lines disposed substantially in planes normal to the planes of the panels.

Referring more particularly to FIG. 3, a straight stack 60 of fan folded chart material produced by the method and apparatus of the invention is shown in which the edges of the panels, R, S, and T, serve to form the side of the stack 60. This side is seen to include alternate score lines defining the panel edges, and is disposed substantially in a plane normal to the planes of the panels.

As shown, the strip of paper which has been fan folded to provide that stack 60 has circular holes 61 running lengthwise on the strip along each edge. The holes have been provided at the edges of the chart to act cooperatively with sprockets to drive the strip of chart paper between the scoring elements employed to score lines transversely throughout the length of the strip. Generally speaking, such holes are usually provided with the machine which prints the graph lines on the paper to provide a chart, such machines being well known to those skilled in the paper processing art. The holes on the chart edges also provide the means by which the chart is driven past the marking pen in a recorder of the type used to record magnitudes of a condition upon the chart. A more comprehensive description of how such a fan folded strip chart may be used in combination with a recorder is disclosed in copending application Serial No. 174,434 filed September 20,v 1962, now Patent No. 3,229,301, and assigned to the assignee of this invention, Whose disclosure is hereby incorporated as part of the disclosure and teaching of the present application.

As further shown in FIG. 3, the fan folded stack of strip chart 60 is seen to have a record of a magnitude of a condition recorded lengthwise on the chart, the recording identified as 62 on the uppermost or top panel 64 of the chart. Since the recording instrument crosses the fold lines, the points of the record on every other fold line will be visible when the strip chart is fan folded into a stack, and are displayed in a rectangular format, i.e., the side 65, disposed at right angles to the planes of the panels. Thus, the fan folded strip charts provided in accordance with the invention will, after having had a record of a magnitude of a condition recorded thereon, enable a rapid edgewise check of the recorded variable trend. Thus, line 63 on the side of the stack 60 provides an indication of the trend of the variable recorded on the chart, and is composed of points on the record separated one from the other by a distance equal to two fold widths.

The present invention takes advantage of the discovery that the problem of producing a substantially straight or upright stack of fan folded strip material is due for the most part to the inability to attain precisely equal spacing between the scoring elements or blades contained in a scoring device, such as the rotary member 11 of FIG. 1. More specifically, it will be appreciated that the width of each panel in a stack of fan folded strip material will be equal to the distance between the score lines along which the strip was folded to produce any particular panel. In turn, the distance between the score lines of any panel will be equal to the distance between the two knives or blades used to score the strip material. For example, assuming that a score line is formed on the strip of material passing between the rolls 11 and 12 by the scoring blade identified as 1, since the roll 11 is traveling in a counterclockwise direction as indicated by arrow 20, the next blade or scoring clement contacting the strip of paper as it passes between the rolls 11 and 12 will be the blade designated as 2, and the distance between the score lines will be equal to the length of the are designated a. The next panel will be of a width corresponding to the length of the arc b, and will have its folding edges scored by the blades 2 and 3. The third, or last panel formed by the completion of a single revolution of the roller 11, will have its edges defined by the scores produced by the knives 3 and 1, and will have a width corresponding to the length of the are c. It 'will become readily apparent that it is virtually impossible to position the blades 1, 2, and 3 longitudinally on the roll 11 in a manner such as to afford precisely the same spacing between the blades. Stated otherwise, it is virtually impossible to provide score lines transversely throughout the length of strip material which are spaced exactly the same distance from one another when using a scoring member containing a plurality of blades. It has been found that this slight departure from equal spacing between the scoring elements or blades in prior art scoring apparatus is the cause of the severe slope in the resulting stack of fan folded panels produced from strip material scored in accordance with the methods and ap paratus of the prior art, in which a total even number of scoring blades was consistently used.

To better illustrate the problem which accompanied the prior art methods of producing a scored material which was to be fan folded, reference is made to FIG. 6 which illustrates in greatly exaggerated form the type of sloping which would occur if a rotary scoring memher were employed to score the strip material containing an even number of scoring elements or blades. Assuming that a rotary scoring member having four blades is used, blades designated as A, B, C, and D respectively, and that the unit distance between blade A and blade B is four units, between blade B and blade C five units, between blade C and blade D six units and between blade D and blade A seven units, it is apparent from FIG. 6 that a fan folded stack of strip material scored with such a scoring member will have a set of four panels whose widths will correspond to the distances between the respective blades used to provide the score marks along which the strip material is folded to provide the stack. It becomes further apparent from FIG. 6 that each time the set of panels repeats in the fan folded stack, i.e., after each revolution of the rotary scoring member, the left edge of the stack is moved downwardly two units to the left. This error then continues to increase as the stack progresses in height, i.e., is cumulative, thus producing a slant or slope to the stack.

Unexpectedly, it has been discovered that by employing an odd number of scoring elements or blades in the scoring member used to provide the score lines on the strip material along which the material will be fan folded into a stack, a substantially straight stack may be provided by virtue of the fact that the error resulting from any slight difference between the distances of the scoring elements one from the other is canceled as the stack increases in height. Referring now to FIG. 2, it becomes apparent that the fan folded strip material shown whose score lines were provided by the apparatus of FIG. 1 will provide a stack which is substantially straight, i.e. upright, rather than sloped. This is due to the fact that the strip material scored by the three scoring blades 1, 2, and 3 of roller 11 will be characterized by successive sets of an odd number of score lines, in this case three, identified as 1, 2, and 3 in FIG. 2 to correspond with the scoring elements with which the lines were formed. The spacing from line to line in the first set of score lines is thus followed by identical spacing from line to line in the next set, and so on throughout the length of the strip material. For example, if in FIG. 1 the are a, i.e., the distance between the blades 1 and 2 is assumed to be ten units long, the arc b is assumed to be eleven units long, and arc c twelve units long, a strip of material scored by the member 11 would contain a set of three score lines defining a set of three panels when in fan folded condition. It will be immediately apparent from FIG. 2 that by using an odd number of scoring elements, any error that is formed as a result of the different distances between the respective scoring elements will be canceled after each revolution of the rotary scoring member. The result is that the stack of fan folded material formed from the build up of such sets of panels is essentially a straight stack having sides including the score lines disposed substantially in planes normal to the planes of the panels, since the sloping effect caused by any difference in the spacing of the scoring elements one from the other has been compensated, i.e., canceled, during the build up of the stack.

As shown in FIG. 1-A, the rotary scoring means may include scoring elements or blades on the backing roll as well as on the scoring roll to score strip material in accordance with the invention. In FIG. l-A, roll 30 includes two scoring blades D and E positioned longitudinally on the roll and spaced apart. Roll 30 also includes a groove I filled with a resilient material such as rubber positioned longitudinally on the roll and spaced 120 from each of the blades D and E. Roll 31, which acts cooperatively with roll 30 to provide the scores on the strip material passed between the rolls as they are rotated in the directions of the arrows 32 and 33, contains a single blade F arranged longitudinally on the roll and spaced 120 apart from each of the recesses E and H which, like the reces I in roll 30, contain a strip of rubber, or other resilient material. Thus when the rolls 30 and 31 are rotated in the direction of the arrows 32, 33 respectively, and a strip of material is passed between them, the blade E of roll 30 will engage the paper transversely as it passes between the rolls, and in cooperation with the resilient material in recess G of roll 31 will provide a score in a transverse direction on the strip of paper. During continued rotation of the two rolls, blade F of roll 31 will then engage the strip of material passing between the rolls and form a score transverse to the direction of the path of the paper by acting cooperatively with the resilient material contained in the space I of roll 30. Finally, blade D of roll 30 will engage the strip of material passing between the rolls and act cooperatively with the resilient material contained in groove H to provide a transverse score along the width of the strip of material as it continues to pass between the rolls. As will be appreciated by those skilled in the art, by employing the arrangement of FIG. 1-A, it will be possible to employ a pair of rotary scoring members each of which contains scoring elements which cooperatively will produce an odd number of scores on the strip of material as it passes between them to provide a scored strip which may be fan folded into a straight stack. The only criterion which must be met is that the total number of blades or scoring elements contained on the two scoring rolls be an odd number.

In the event rotary or cylindrical scoring member are used to provide the score lines on the strip of material to be fan folded, it is essential that the rotary members be positioned at right angles to the direction of travel of the strip material as it passes between them. In this connection, the rotating cylinders should be disposed substantially parallel one to the other. In the event that all of the scoring elements are disposed on one of the rolls, the back up roll, which may be used to drive the strip material into engagement with the scoring elements, may be of a diameter greater than that of the rotary scoring member. It has been found in this connection that the use of a back up member having a diameter such that the ratio of the diameter of the back up member to the diameter of the scoring member is an odd ratio aids in eliminating any twist that would result in the stack of the resulting fan folded material occasioned by any error that may exist in placing the two rotary members slightly out of parallelism with each other, or slightly out of right angle relationship with the path of the moving strip material.

As shown in FIG. 4, the invention contemplates the use of a fiat bed type scoring apparatus including a motor 41 driving a drive input shaft 42 connected to a converter 43 which serves to drive in a synchronous manner the eccentric member 44, which provides reciprocating motion to the score assembly 45 including the scoring member 46 having five blades K, L, M, N, and P disposed longitudinally of the scoring element. The speed converter 43 synchronously drives the intermittent Web feed 47 consisting of two rollers 48, 49, which provide driving means for driving the strip material 50 beneath the scoring blades K, L, M, N, and P. The strip material 50 will then be scored as the five scoring blades contact the paper on the downward stroke of the eccentric 44. As further shown in FIG. 4, the strip is passed over a flat bed of resilient material 51, such as rubber, which will act in cooperation with the edges of the knives to produce the score marks on the strip. After the Strip has been scored, the rotation of the eccentric 44 into the position shown in FIG. 4 will be accompanied by a further advance of an additional predetermined length of the paper or strip material 50 onto the fiat bed. The scored portion of the strip is concurrently passed into folding means 52 in which a fan fold effect is produced. Any suitable folding means may be used in this connection, such as that described in connection with FIG. 1. The fan folded material is then directed into the storage bin 49 and provides a substantially straight stack of folded panels 54 in which the edges including the fold lines are disposed substantially in planes normal to the planes of the panels.

As will be appreciated by those skilled in the art, it is possible to employ a flat bed scoring apparatus in which the scoring elements are distributed between the moving scoring element and the stationary flat bed member over which the strip material is advanced during the scoring operation, the only criterion being that the total number of scoring elements distributed between the two members be an odd number.

FIG. 5 shows how a straight stack of fan folded material may be obtained from a scoring member containing 5 blades such as described in FIG. 4, where the departure from equal distances between the respective scoring elements has been greatly exaggerated for purpose of illustration. Thus, if it is assumed that the uppermost point K represents the fold line formed by the blade K in FIG. 4, the width of the first panel will be equal to the distance between the blade K and the blade L. As shown in FIG. 5, this distance has been assumed to be two units long. The following panel formed by the fold lines corresponding to the scores formed by blades L and M will then have a width equal to the distance between these two blades which, in FIG. 5, is shown to be four units long. The next panel whose edges were defined by the score lines produced by blades M and N is shown to have a length of six units, whereas the following panel, having a width corresponding to the distance between blades N and P is shown to have a length of eight units. The last panel, having its edges formed by the fold lines obtained by the scores produced by blades P and K is shown to have a width of ten units. This latter panel is, of course, formed by the advance of the strip material onto the flat bed during each revolution of the eccentric 44. Thus, as the strip of material 50 is advanced onto the flat bed 51 past the scoring member 46, rotation of the eccentric 44 will cause the scoring assembly 45 to be moved in a downward direction to engage the paper and in cooperation with the resilient member 51 produce on the paper a set of five score lines. Turning again to FIG. 5, it wiil be noted that the strip of material thus produced and fan folded will consist of a series of sets of panels, each set containing five panels. Assuming the distance between the five knives is that shown in FIG. 5, the first five panels will be seen to begin to produce a sloping effect in the stack in a downward direction to the left, as indicated by the fold lines corresponding to the letters K, M, and P. However, the

error that is produced by virtue of the uneven spacing between the knives is seen to be cancelled by virtue of the fact that the next set of five panels produces a sloping effect in a downward direction and to the right, as indicated by the second set of fold lines K, M, and P. The next set of five panels will then again assume a sloping direction downwardly and to the left, as indicated by the edges corresponding to K", M", and P". In this manner, any error that results from unequal spacing will continually be cancelled along the length of the stack, and asubstantially straight stack of fan folded panels will be produced. In actual practice, where the differences in distance between the blades is relatively small, the sides of the panels, including the score lines, will be disposed substantially in planes normal to the planes of the panels.

It will be appreciated by those skilled in the art that the differences in the distances between the blades of the scoring elements of FIGS. 1 and 4 have been greatly exaggerated in the pictorial representations shown in FIGS. 2 and 5 for purposes of illustration. In actual practice, the actual difference in distances between any two scoring members may be relatively infinitesimal as, for example, of a magnitude of 0.001" or less. For example, if a rotary scoring element is used including four scoring elements and the total error after each revolution of the scoring element, i.e., after the production of four panels, is only 0.001", and it is assumed further that the thickness of the strip material which is scored is of the order of 0.001 thick, then a stack of fan folded panels produced from strip material scored by such a scoring member, will, at a height of four inches, slope one inch to the right or to the left of the vertical axis of the stack. Stated otherwise, the deviation or error will be magnified 1000 times, or the number of times the error is repeated in the height of the stack.

What is claimed is:

1. The method of producing a straight stack of fan folded strip material, which comprises,

fan folding along its score lines :a transversely scored strip of material characterized by successive sets of an odd number of score lines, the spacing from score line to score line in the first set being followed by identical spacing in the next set, and so on throughout the length of said strip, to produce a straight stack of folded panels having sides including said score lines disposed substantially in planes normal to the planes of the panels.

2. The method of claim 1 in which the scores have lbeen applied by perforating the strip to form the score mes.

3. The method of producing a substantially straight stack of fan folded strip material which comprises,

repeatedly applying to said strip in a transverse direction a set of an odd number of scores of substantially equal spacing one from the other to provide a scored strip of material characterized by successive sets of an odd number of score lines, the spacing from score line to score line in the first set being followed by identical spacing in the next set, and so on throughout the length of said strip,

and subsequently fan folding the scored strip of material along its score lines to provide a straight stack of folded panels having sides including said score lines disposed substantially in planes normal to the planes of the panels.

4. The method of claim 3 in which the scores are applied by perforating the strips to form the score lines.

5. Apparatus for producing a straight stack of fan folded strip material, comprising,

scoring means including an odd number of scoring elements substantially equidistant one from the other,

means for supplying a strip of material to said scoring means to provide scores defining the widths of the panels of the strip when fan folded into a stack, said odd number of scoring elements producing a scored strip material characterized by successive sets of an odd number of score lines, the spacing from line to line in the first set being followed by identical spacing from line to line in the next set, and so on throughout the length of said strip material, and means for fan folding the scored strip of material to provide a straight stack of folded panels having sides including said score lines disposed substantially in planes normal to the planes of the panels.

6. Apparatus for producing a straight stack of fan folded strip material, comprising,

a pair of scoring members arranged in parallel relationship one on each side of and at right angles to the path of a strip of material which is to be scored, said scoring members including an odd number of scoring elements substantially equidistant one from the other,

means for supplying a strip of material to said scoring means to provide scores defining the widths of the panels of the strip when fan folded into a stack,

means for providing relative motion between said members to cause said members to cooperatively produce said scores on said strip, said odd number of scoring elements producing a scored strip of material characterized by successive sets of an odd number of score lines, the spacing from line to line in the first set being followed by identical spacing from line to line in the second set, and so on throughout the length of said strip, and means for fan folding the scored strip of material to produce a straight stack of folded panels having sides including said score lines disposed substantially in planes normal to the planes of the panels.

7. The'apparatus of claim 6 in which the scoring members have a cylindrical configuration.

8. Apparatus for producing a straight stack of fan folded strip material comprising,

driving means for moving along a predetermined path a strip of material,

a pair of scoring members arranged in parallel relationship one on each side of and at right angles to the path of travel of said material, said scoring members including an odd number of scoring elements substantially equidistant one from the other, and

means for providing relative motion between said members to cause said members to cooperatively produce said scores on said strip, said odd number of scoring elements producing a scored strip material characterized by successive sets of an odd number of score lines, the spacing from line to line in the first set being followed by identical spacing from line to line in the second set, and so on throughout the length of said strip, and means for fan folding the scored strip of material to produce a straight stack of folded panels having sides including said score lines disposed substantially in planes normal to the planes of the panels.

9. The apparatus of claim 6 in which one of said pair of scoring members comprises a scoring roll upon which all of said scoring elements are disposed, and the other of said pair of scoring members comprises a back-up roll of a diameter such that the ratio of the diameter of said back-up roll to the diameter of said scoring roll is an odd ratio.

References Cited UNITED STATES PATENTS 1,010,437 12/ 1911 Klein 270-79 2,854,233 9/1958 Groeper 270-79 2,870,840 1/ 1959 Kwitek 83--678 EUGENE R. CAPOZIO, Primary Examiner.

I. V. WILLIAMS, Assistant Examiner. 

